[Rd] xy.coords

On 12/31/2005 8:57 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
> It could be changed to missing(y) || is.null(y) and the docs amended.
> That way existing code will continue to work and code that otherwise
> gives an error currently, but should have worked, will now work too.
Can you give an example where you would want to use xy.coords(y ~ x)?
Normally xy.coords() is used in other functions, and they can default y
to NULL (see plot.default, for example).
Duncan Murdoch
>> On 12/31/05, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
>>>On 12/30/2005 10:10 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>>>In ?xy.coords it says:
>>>>>> If 'y' is missing and 'x' is a
>>>>>> formula: of the form 'yvar ~ xvar'. 'xvar' and 'yvar' are used as
>>> x and y variables.
>>>>>> list: containing components 'x' and 'y', these are used to define
>>> plotting coordinates.
>>>>>> time series: the x values are taken to be 'time(x)' and the y
>>> values to be the time series.
>>>>>> matrix with two columns: the first is assumed to contain the x
>>> values and the second the y values.
>>>>>>however, in fact, if y is missing an error is given. e.g.
>>>>>>x <- 1:3
>>>y <- 4:6
>>>xy.coords(y ~ x) # error
>>>xy.coords(cbind(x, y)) # error
>>>xy.coords(ts(y)) # error
>>>>>>Looking at the code, is.null(y) in the first line of the
>>>body should be missing(y) .
>>>>It would be better to change the docs to say "if 'y' is NULL ...". The
>>code has been the way it is for years and years, and is widely used.
>>>>Changing the test to missing(y) would mean all existing uses that put a
>>NULL there would need to be changed.
>>>>Adding a default value of NULL to y would have less impact, but I'd
>>still be worried about it having long-range bad effects.
>>>>Duncan Murdoch
>>